Aaron Nola recorded 21 outs in his last start. For the first time in his major league career, two-thirds of those outs came within the at-bat’s first three pitches.

Nowadays, strikeouts are all the rage. The best way to minimize damage is to send the hitter back to the dugout without putting the ball in play. Runners don’t advance if no one is tagging up. Infielders can’t botch ground balls if they aren’t hit in the first place. But strikeouts, if a pitcher can manage them at all, do carry some adverse effects. It takes a few pitches — sometimes many — to strike a hitter out.

There were almost 6,900 strikeouts in Major League Baseball last season. They occurred on average at around the fifth pitch of the at-bat. Too many five-pitch at-bats can wear down a pitcher. Phillies coaches and management often talk about this. “Strikeouts, by themselves, are not a terrible thing,” general manager Matt Klentak said just last week. If hitters work...